“An idea I just couldn’t say no to.”
In today’s team spotlight we sit down with Drainage Director Wayne Martin to talk about starting businesses, building legacies and why he’s still out on the road, getting the job done…
Hi Wayne, what do you do at Trust?
I’m Trust’s Drainage Director and I joined in October 2025 when Liam bought my drainage company. Up until then, I’d been quite content running my own business and I was making a nice living. But Liam came along with an idea, and an offer, I just couldn’t say no to. So now we’re capitalising on what I built and turning it into a much bigger drainage division here at Trust.
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I was in the forces until 1990, working as a signaller – a bit like being a BT engineer, in the days before fibre optic cables. We’d have to get a cable from A to B, whether that meant dragging it, driving it or whatever it took!
When I left the army I got into drainage pretty much straight away. I joined Lanes for Drains, stayed about 17 years, went elsewhere then came back for a bit before leaving for good in 2014.
At that point I thought, you know what, they’re making a fortune, let’s see if we can do the same. So along with a couple of friends, I started a business. It went great for a while, but we struggled to get some big clients to pay, and in the end, we had to shut it down and get the lads a new job.
After that, I set up Wayne for Drains, the company Liam bought out late last year. Over about eight years, I’d built a really reliable team and a loyal client base. We mainly worked with the construction industry, but we also had domestic, industrial, commercial, government, property development and facilities management clients.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I get up early, get the crew sorted, then get started at my desk, working on things like risk assessments and method statements, generating leads and talking to clients. Most of the time I head out to our sites about four times a week.
We’re just finishing a large project over in Chesterfield and we do a lot of work for prisons, so we’ve been working on CCTV reports for those. The lads do the surveys on site, then that information comes back to the office for us to produce the reports. It’s quite intense because it’s professional indemnity really – we’re telling the client that they have or haven’t got an issue with their drains.
For example, on the job we’re just finishing now, there’s probably around a quarter of a million pounds’ worth of follow-up work from the report we’re finalising. So it’s got to be right and it’s got to be fair on price.
What might people find surprising about your job?
People don’t expect me to still jump in the van and go out to a job, but if I’m needed, I do. I believe you should never let the client down, because they just won’t come back. Especially in our industry. There are loads of little companies setting up, so they’ll just ring them and undercut you.
Which is why tonight, at about twenty to six, I’ll be in a van, heading out to a job. And I think that’s why, over the years, all of my clients have stayed loyal. Not one has left.
What do you love about your job and working at Trust?
Every day is a different day, and every job’s different too. It’s kind of a Marmite industry – you either love it or hate it. I tried to leave drainage twice, but it just draws you back in!
And to be completely honest with you, I really enjoy working at Trust. Because when you’re running your own business, you’re on your own a lot, making the decisions. Now it’s Liam’s business, I’m still 100% involved and making those decisions, but we’re building it together.
“It’s kind of a Marmite industry – you either love it or hate it. I tried to leave drainage twice, but it just draws you back in!”
What’s been a real highlight in your career?
I think it would be both of my daughters coming into the industry too, because it’s given us a good living as a family. I trained them to do what I do in the office, and now they both work for Severn Trent Water. The fact that they tried it, took to it and carried on – I’m very proud of that.
Then for me personally, I suppose it’s when you win a big contract. You put so much effort and time into tendering and building the relationship, and then you get the order. And that’s the best thing ever.
And leading on from that, it’s a great feeling when you’ve done the whole job from A to Z and you hand over the final report to a client – which could be 1,000 pages long – and they say ok, you’ve won my work, when do you want the next contract? That’s it for me.
What are your ambitions for the future?
I’m 100% committed to building the drainage team at Trust because it’s just in my nature. I’m a workaholic – ask my wife! I don’t think I’ll ever retire to be honest, I enjoy it too much. I’ll probably die on the end of a winch, going down a manhole!
But honestly, I just really want the drainage team to be a profitable, successful part of Trust. Because if one day I do decide to retire, I want to leave a legacy – to be able to say we started this from zero and now it’s a major part of Trust as a whole. That’s want I want, absolutely.
“I want to leave a legacy – to be able to say we started this from zero and now it’s a major part of Trust as a whole.”
What would you say to someone thinking of joining the Trust team?
They’re a good employer. You get looked after and you get listened to. When it comes to growing the drainage division, we want to attract people who can do specialist work. We don’t just want people who can push a camera down a pipe, we want people who can do the end bit too – the analysis, the reports. Because otherwise I’ll never get away from this office!
For example, with the job I’m working on now, the scope of works is to basically remap the whole site. So the teams are lifting every manhole lid, doing GPS location with poles to get the eastern and northerns and cover levels, and generating all of that into an AutoCAD plan.
And it’s got to be right. We do a lot of work with insurance companies, looking at, for example, whether there’s something wrong with a drain under a house, and the answer we give has to be accurate – it’s a big responsibility.
When you’re not at work, how do you like to spend your time?
Spare time’s pretty minimal at the minute, but my wife and I like to get away when we can. We’ve got a motorhome, so at the weekends we try to head off somewhere, or just spend some quality time with our daughters.
It’s one of the reasons we sold Wayne for Drains – because I worked seven days a week for years, and my wife Ellen was the company director. She said to me, it’s our time now Wayne, we need to spend more time together. So I sold it.
But I don’t think she realised that actually, we’ve got to build this now. So I’m working even more hours! But I know that’s going to ease up the bigger we get. I can see a light!
If you’ve been inspired by Wayne’s story, find out how you can join us here.
